ORDOS 100 #4: Rafi Segal

Architect Rafi Segal sent us his villa, located in plot ORDOS 100 project.

Some images, plans and the architect’s description after the break.

Mass media and architectural tourism are as much of the project’s context as the urbanization of the Ordos plains of Inner Mongolia.

The building responds to the intersection of these economies by articulating a variable relation between private and public or “privacy and publicity.” The building alternates between a state of radical interiority providing an introvert retreat that gives away no image; and a state of total exhibitionism that publicly exposes its interiors.

A series of pathways and spaces are carved out of a slanted platform of artificial landscape. A central crack, traversing the site from north to south, branches off to smaller paths and private courts. Each court serves a function: sleeping, eating, living, entertaining, working. All windows are opened to these outdoor ‘interior’ spaces.

In the context of the neighborhood’s condition of over-exposure and hyper-visibility we propose a non-object. The radical interiority of the building folds inwards all views. The building is visible only from within the crack-an open house from the inside.

On occasions of a visit/exhibition, the crack becomes a public walkway through which the building can be experienced.

Because of the building’s unique location on the perimeter of the neighborhood the crack/path would connect the museum area with the rest of the buildings on site.

The internal functions of the house are organized as a loop wrapped around the public path. Movement between the two sides of the crack would pass either over or under it.

The southwards slant of the roof maximizes the building’s exposure to winter sunlight. The earthworks of the artificial landscape act as ‘natural insulation’ maximizing thermal performance in the extreme weather conditions of the Ordos Plains.